Increasing packaging densities in the integrated circuit technology used in computer systems, wherein 200 million or more operations are completed in a second, has increased the demands on integrated circuit chip or wafer cooling methods due to the generation of heat which can be sufficiently high enough to damage the chip, generally made of silicon, unless it is appropriately cooled. A number of methods have been proposed to cool these chips including passive type cooling systems which remove the heat from critical package areas through various heat conduction techniques such as the use of a copper fin cooling system placed directly on the package. Active type cooling systems have also been proposed to cool these chips or wafers such as by pumping fluids through micro channels formed in the package. An active type cooling system described in, e.g., "High-Performance Heat Sinking for VLSI", by D. B. Tuckerman et al, IEEE Electron Device Letters, VOL. EDL-2, No. 5, May 1981, pp. 126-129, discloses the formation of microscopic channels formed in an integrated circuit silicon chip for carrying a coolant. Microchannels are also used to cool chips in the system disclosed in an article entitled "Chip coolers", in Popular Science, June 1990, pp. 40 and 41.
In the field of microdynamics, micromechanical systems, such as micromotors, are being developed which have no parts with dimensions much larger than 100 micrometers. An article entitled "IC-Processed Electrostatic Micro-motors", by L-S. Fan et al, in IEDM 88, 1988, pp. 666-669, describes micro-motors wherein both rotors and stators, driven by electrostatic forces, are formed from 1.0-1.5 micrometer thick polycrystalline silicon with the diameters of the rotors in the motors tested being between 60 and 120 micrometers. Also an article entitled Micromachine in Popular Science, March 1989, pp. 88-92 and 143, discloses electrostatic microscopic motors mass-produced with other mechanisms on silicon wafers . Another article entitled "Silicon micromechanics: sensors and actuators on a chip" by R. T. Howe et al, IEEE Spectrum, July 1990, pp. 29-31, 34 and 35, describes fabricating minute motors using the integrated circuit manufacturing processes.
An article entitled "Micro Gears and Turbines Etched from Silicon" by K. J. Gabriel et al, in Transducers '87, June 1987, pp. 853-856, discloses the fabrication of micro air-turbines etched from silicon. U.S. Pat. No. 4,740,410, by R. S. Muller et al, issued Apr. 26, 1988, and entitled "Micromechanical Elements and Methods for Their Fabrication" discusses the use of polycrystalline silicon as the material for making micromechanical members while using phosphosilicate glass for sacrificial layers during the fabrication of the micromechanical elements. "Design Considerations for a Practical Electrostatic Micro-motor", by W.S.N. Trimmer et al, in sensors and Actuators, 11(March 1987), pp. 189-206, discusses the design of electrostatic motors utilizing the advances in silicon technology.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,943,750, by R. T. Howe et al, issued Jul. 24, 1990, discloses an electrostatic micromotor used as an air pump by micromachining an aperture underlying the rotor and apertures at a corresponding radius in the rotor. A Union of Soviet Socialist Republic patent SU 0644-020, dated Jan. 28, 1979, discloses an electrostatic motor formed in a dielectric cylinder with rotation transmitted to fan vanes.